Portrayal of The Protagonist in Fyodor Dostoevsky's 'Notes From Underground'.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................. i
TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................. ii
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study.........................................................................
Statement of the Problem ........................................................................
Purpose of the Study ...............................................................................
Method of Research ................................................................................
Organization of the Thesis ......................................................................
1
2
2
2
3
CHAPTER TWO: PORTRAYAL OF THE PROTAGONIST IN
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY’S NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND .. 4
CHAPTER THREE: CONCLUSION............................................................. 14
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................. 17
APPENDICES:
Synopsis of Notes from Underground..................................................... 18
Biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky ........................................................... 19
ii
Maranatha Christian University
ABSTRACT
Di dalam Tugas Akhir ini, saya akan membahas tentang penokohan dalam
novel Notes from Underground karya Fyodor Dostoevsky. Tokoh dalam novel
tersebut tidak mempunyai nama; dia hanya disebut sebagai manusia bawah tanah.
Hal ini disebabkan karena dia tinggal di bawah tanah.
Setelah membaca dan menganalisis novel tersebut, saya mendapati bahwa
tokoh dalam novel ini cukup aneh; keanehannya dapat dilihat dari tempat
tinggalnya yaitu di bawah tanah. Selain aneh tokoh ini juga digambarkan sebagai
seseorang yang mempunyai karakteristik yang negatif yaitu rendah diri,
mementingkan dirinya sendiri, membenci orang sekitarnya, suka menyakiti
perasaan orang lain, dan mempunyai imaginasi yang tinggi. Tetapi dibalik semua
karakteristiknya dia juga seseorang yang mandiri yang tidak bergantung pada
orang-orang di sekitarnya.
Melalui penggambaran tokoh utamanya, Fyodor Dostoevsky ingin
menyampaikan bahwa, orang seperti tokoh utama dalam novel ini, dapat memilih
jalan hidupnya sesuai dengan pilihannya dan menerima konsekuensinya yaitu
hidup sendiri di bawah tanah. Meskipun begitu dia menjalani hidupnya tanpa
bergantung pada orang lain dan tidak menyusahkan orang lain, dan dengan
imajinasinya pun dia mampu membantu dirinya dalam bertahan hidup sendiri di
bawah tanah.
iii
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APPENDICES
Synopsis of Notes from Underground
Notes from Underground is sbout a man who lives alone in the little corner
in St. Petersburg, Russia. The protagonist of the novel has no name and is called
the Underground man. He is forty-year old man and has been living in the
underground for a long time. In the underground he likes to read books and write
to omit his boredom. Then he starts to write about his life. He describes himself as
a sick person because of liver problem. He is an orphan and he likes to live alone.
In his childhood, he has no friends at school because his appearance is untidy and
nasty, different from others. He is always silent when his friends humiliate him,
and he feels angry but it is only in his mind. In fact he cannot get angry at them
and he cannot do anything.
One day his friend wants to make a farewell party, but they do not invite
him. The Underground man believes that he should come to the party so he invites
himself. After that, he and his friends go to a brothel where he meets Liza. He
falls in love with her but then he thinks that Liza has a bad intention. As he is
highly imaginative, he thinks negatively about her and makes her upset. In the end
she leaves him forever. He regrets what he has done, but he still chooses to stay in
the underground alone.
18
Maranatha Christian University
Biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born in Moscow, Russia on October
31, 1821. Growing up in a relatively happy home, he probably felt closest to his
elder brother, Mikhail. By the age of 18, both of his parents died. His father was
supposedly murdered by one of his serfs. Soon Dostoevsky was sent to an
engineering school in St. Petersburg, the setting of most of his future novels.
Dostoevsky graduated from the St. Petersburg Military Engineering
Academy at the age of 22. Soon afterwards, he became a government employee,
working as a draftsman of sorts. He quickly joined a socialist organization. His
participation in the group led to his arrest in 1849. Sentenced to death by a firing
squad, Dostoevsky firmly believed his life to be over. Then at the last moment, his
sentence was changed to four years at the Siberian prison, followed by another
four years of military service.
By 1858, Dostoevsky was finally released from service, and it was at this
time that his famous works, including Notes from Underground and Crime and
Punishment, were written. Yet the famous Russian author’s hardships were far
from over, for he found himself in an incredible amount of family debt which
eventually led to a gambling problem. When first wife died, Dostoevsky fell in
love with and soon married the nineteen-year-old Anna Grigorevna Snitkina, a
stenographer. Before he died, however, Dostoevsky, probably for the first time in
his life, finally experienced the material success he had earned over the years
through his writing. Dostoevsky died in the winter of 1881, having been plagued
his entire life by severe health problems.
Source: < “Notes from Underground analysis” >
19
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Fyodor Dostoevsky is a Russian novelist in the nineteenth century. He is
also a short story writer and a journalist. He is quite famous in his era and he is
one of the existentialist thinkers, who emphasize on individual existence, freedom,
and choice. He also likes to create mysterious characters almost in all his novels.
One mysterious character is the protagonist of Notes from Underground, a
novel that I choose to analyse in this thesis. In my opinion the characteristics of
the protagonist are hard to understand, as they are different from normal people’s.
He likes to be alone and avoids talking to others. I am challenged to find out the
reason behind his uncommon behavior, thus I will focus on the portrayal of the
protagonist.
The protagonist has no name; he is just referred to as the Underground
man. He is portrayed as a man who lives in a little corner of St. Petersburg,
Russia. I personally think that analysing the protagonist is a challenge for me to
know this character deeper, so that I can understand more what kind of a man he
is and whether his characteristics change or not. The reasons mentioned above
1
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encourage me to analyse the portrayal of the protagonist thoroughly because
“analyzing characters are not easy, as they are complex, variable, and ambiguous”
(Perrine 67). By analysing the protagonist in Notes from Underground more
deeply, I hope I can understand the purpose of the author in creating such
character.
Statement of the Problem
In order to analyse the topic chosen, I state the problems as follows:
1. How does the author portray the protagonist in this novel?
2. What is the purpose of the author in creating such a character?
Purpose of the Study
Based on the statement of the problem above, the purposes of the study
are:
1. To show how the author portrays the protagonist in the novel.
2. To show the purpose of the author in creating such a character.
Method of Research
The method I use in analysing the protagonist in Notes from Underground
is library research. First, I read Notes from Underground as the primary text. I also
read and collect some texts which support my topic from the library and the
Internet. Then, I analyse the novel using the information that I have gathered and
draw some conclusion of what has been discussed.
2
Maranatha Christian University
Organization of the Thesis
This thesis consists of three chapters, preceded by the Acknowledgments
and the Abstract. Chapter One is the Introduction, which consists of the
Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the Study,
the Method of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two is the
discussion on the portrayal of the protagonist of Notes from Underground.
Chapter Three is the conclusion of the discussion. My thesis ends with the
Bibliography and the Appendices, which present the synopsis of the novel and the
biography of the author.
3
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER THREE
CONCLUSION
After analysing Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, I would
like to draw some conclusions. The protagonist in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes
from Underground is called the Underground man. His characteristics remain the
same from the beginning until the end of the story. Throughout the story, he is
portrayed as strange. His strangeness becomes the main reason why he has no
friends, gets bad treatment from other people and thus he hates and avoids other
people.
His strangeness also makes him become inferior and introverted. Because
he feels that he is different from other people, sometimes he is afraid when he
faces someone. This weakness makes some of his friends not only in his school
but also in his office like to humiliate him. The humiliation that he gets makes
him hate them and spend his time in the underground, the place he spends his life.
Misanthropic is another characteristic that he has; he hates people around
him because he feels he only gets humiliation from them. This characteristic
appears because of some bad treatments that he gets since he is a child. His
14
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childhood also gives effect for him to become spiteful. In my opinion, he wants to
take revenge on other people because he gets so many bad treatments that he
becomes spiteful by making other people feel upset.
Living in the underground for a long time makes the Underground man
like to spend his time reading and day dreaming, which causes him to become
highly-imaginative. With his imagination he can create his life and decrease his
boredom. Living in the underground alone without anyone also forces him to
become independent. He can survive and endure his life although he does not
have a good career.
It is obvious that the Underground man is portrayed as a man who cannot
socialize with other people and prefers to live alone in the underground. By
creating the protagonist as a man with such characteristics the author is actually
dealing with choices and consequences. The Underground man has made a choice
to live alone and he accepts the consequences.
From this novel I learn that a man like the Underground man is a unique
character. How he lives his life and how he interacts with other people make him
unique. Almost all his characteristics are not usual and the way he lives his life is
strange enough because I do not think that as a social being one can live alone
without anyone’s helps. However, with all his characteristics that he has he can
still survive living alone. He can get a job to endure his life, and he does not
depend on other people.
I find that Dostoevsky has portrayed the Underground man realistically; he
has bad and good characteristics. His characteristics that I have mentioned above
are almost negative but there is one positive side from him, being independent.
15
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His being independent is a good side that I get from the protagonist. Moreover, I
am of the opinion that the Underground man would never become strange if he
got some love and care from the people around him. What he needs is more
attention and no humiliation. Bad experience that he passes is a background how
he becomes strange and which makes him have some negative characteristics.
Last but not least, from what the protagonist experiences, I learn that
family is very important not only to give some helps when needed but also to
build one’s characteristics. Love and affection from one’s family will give good
impact on the person. He or she will surely grow up possessing positive
characteristics.
16
Maranatha Christian University
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Text:
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from Underground. London: Penguin Red Classic, 2000.
References:
Perrine, Laurence. Story and Structure. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
1974.
Hornby, A. S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Sixth Edition. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2000.
Internet Website:
“Notes from Underground Analysis”. Novel Guide. 1999-2009. 4 May 2008
17
Maranatha Christian University
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.............................................................................. i
TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................. ii
ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study.........................................................................
Statement of the Problem ........................................................................
Purpose of the Study ...............................................................................
Method of Research ................................................................................
Organization of the Thesis ......................................................................
1
2
2
2
3
CHAPTER TWO: PORTRAYAL OF THE PROTAGONIST IN
FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY’S NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND .. 4
CHAPTER THREE: CONCLUSION............................................................. 14
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................. 17
APPENDICES:
Synopsis of Notes from Underground..................................................... 18
Biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky ........................................................... 19
ii
Maranatha Christian University
ABSTRACT
Di dalam Tugas Akhir ini, saya akan membahas tentang penokohan dalam
novel Notes from Underground karya Fyodor Dostoevsky. Tokoh dalam novel
tersebut tidak mempunyai nama; dia hanya disebut sebagai manusia bawah tanah.
Hal ini disebabkan karena dia tinggal di bawah tanah.
Setelah membaca dan menganalisis novel tersebut, saya mendapati bahwa
tokoh dalam novel ini cukup aneh; keanehannya dapat dilihat dari tempat
tinggalnya yaitu di bawah tanah. Selain aneh tokoh ini juga digambarkan sebagai
seseorang yang mempunyai karakteristik yang negatif yaitu rendah diri,
mementingkan dirinya sendiri, membenci orang sekitarnya, suka menyakiti
perasaan orang lain, dan mempunyai imaginasi yang tinggi. Tetapi dibalik semua
karakteristiknya dia juga seseorang yang mandiri yang tidak bergantung pada
orang-orang di sekitarnya.
Melalui penggambaran tokoh utamanya, Fyodor Dostoevsky ingin
menyampaikan bahwa, orang seperti tokoh utama dalam novel ini, dapat memilih
jalan hidupnya sesuai dengan pilihannya dan menerima konsekuensinya yaitu
hidup sendiri di bawah tanah. Meskipun begitu dia menjalani hidupnya tanpa
bergantung pada orang lain dan tidak menyusahkan orang lain, dan dengan
imajinasinya pun dia mampu membantu dirinya dalam bertahan hidup sendiri di
bawah tanah.
iii
Maranatha Christian University
APPENDICES
Synopsis of Notes from Underground
Notes from Underground is sbout a man who lives alone in the little corner
in St. Petersburg, Russia. The protagonist of the novel has no name and is called
the Underground man. He is forty-year old man and has been living in the
underground for a long time. In the underground he likes to read books and write
to omit his boredom. Then he starts to write about his life. He describes himself as
a sick person because of liver problem. He is an orphan and he likes to live alone.
In his childhood, he has no friends at school because his appearance is untidy and
nasty, different from others. He is always silent when his friends humiliate him,
and he feels angry but it is only in his mind. In fact he cannot get angry at them
and he cannot do anything.
One day his friend wants to make a farewell party, but they do not invite
him. The Underground man believes that he should come to the party so he invites
himself. After that, he and his friends go to a brothel where he meets Liza. He
falls in love with her but then he thinks that Liza has a bad intention. As he is
highly imaginative, he thinks negatively about her and makes her upset. In the end
she leaves him forever. He regrets what he has done, but he still chooses to stay in
the underground alone.
18
Maranatha Christian University
Biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born in Moscow, Russia on October
31, 1821. Growing up in a relatively happy home, he probably felt closest to his
elder brother, Mikhail. By the age of 18, both of his parents died. His father was
supposedly murdered by one of his serfs. Soon Dostoevsky was sent to an
engineering school in St. Petersburg, the setting of most of his future novels.
Dostoevsky graduated from the St. Petersburg Military Engineering
Academy at the age of 22. Soon afterwards, he became a government employee,
working as a draftsman of sorts. He quickly joined a socialist organization. His
participation in the group led to his arrest in 1849. Sentenced to death by a firing
squad, Dostoevsky firmly believed his life to be over. Then at the last moment, his
sentence was changed to four years at the Siberian prison, followed by another
four years of military service.
By 1858, Dostoevsky was finally released from service, and it was at this
time that his famous works, including Notes from Underground and Crime and
Punishment, were written. Yet the famous Russian author’s hardships were far
from over, for he found himself in an incredible amount of family debt which
eventually led to a gambling problem. When first wife died, Dostoevsky fell in
love with and soon married the nineteen-year-old Anna Grigorevna Snitkina, a
stenographer. Before he died, however, Dostoevsky, probably for the first time in
his life, finally experienced the material success he had earned over the years
through his writing. Dostoevsky died in the winter of 1881, having been plagued
his entire life by severe health problems.
Source: < “Notes from Underground analysis” >
19
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Fyodor Dostoevsky is a Russian novelist in the nineteenth century. He is
also a short story writer and a journalist. He is quite famous in his era and he is
one of the existentialist thinkers, who emphasize on individual existence, freedom,
and choice. He also likes to create mysterious characters almost in all his novels.
One mysterious character is the protagonist of Notes from Underground, a
novel that I choose to analyse in this thesis. In my opinion the characteristics of
the protagonist are hard to understand, as they are different from normal people’s.
He likes to be alone and avoids talking to others. I am challenged to find out the
reason behind his uncommon behavior, thus I will focus on the portrayal of the
protagonist.
The protagonist has no name; he is just referred to as the Underground
man. He is portrayed as a man who lives in a little corner of St. Petersburg,
Russia. I personally think that analysing the protagonist is a challenge for me to
know this character deeper, so that I can understand more what kind of a man he
is and whether his characteristics change or not. The reasons mentioned above
1
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encourage me to analyse the portrayal of the protagonist thoroughly because
“analyzing characters are not easy, as they are complex, variable, and ambiguous”
(Perrine 67). By analysing the protagonist in Notes from Underground more
deeply, I hope I can understand the purpose of the author in creating such
character.
Statement of the Problem
In order to analyse the topic chosen, I state the problems as follows:
1. How does the author portray the protagonist in this novel?
2. What is the purpose of the author in creating such a character?
Purpose of the Study
Based on the statement of the problem above, the purposes of the study
are:
1. To show how the author portrays the protagonist in the novel.
2. To show the purpose of the author in creating such a character.
Method of Research
The method I use in analysing the protagonist in Notes from Underground
is library research. First, I read Notes from Underground as the primary text. I also
read and collect some texts which support my topic from the library and the
Internet. Then, I analyse the novel using the information that I have gathered and
draw some conclusion of what has been discussed.
2
Maranatha Christian University
Organization of the Thesis
This thesis consists of three chapters, preceded by the Acknowledgments
and the Abstract. Chapter One is the Introduction, which consists of the
Background of the Study, the Statement of the Problem, the Purpose of the Study,
the Method of Research, and the Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two is the
discussion on the portrayal of the protagonist of Notes from Underground.
Chapter Three is the conclusion of the discussion. My thesis ends with the
Bibliography and the Appendices, which present the synopsis of the novel and the
biography of the author.
3
Maranatha Christian University
CHAPTER THREE
CONCLUSION
After analysing Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, I would
like to draw some conclusions. The protagonist in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes
from Underground is called the Underground man. His characteristics remain the
same from the beginning until the end of the story. Throughout the story, he is
portrayed as strange. His strangeness becomes the main reason why he has no
friends, gets bad treatment from other people and thus he hates and avoids other
people.
His strangeness also makes him become inferior and introverted. Because
he feels that he is different from other people, sometimes he is afraid when he
faces someone. This weakness makes some of his friends not only in his school
but also in his office like to humiliate him. The humiliation that he gets makes
him hate them and spend his time in the underground, the place he spends his life.
Misanthropic is another characteristic that he has; he hates people around
him because he feels he only gets humiliation from them. This characteristic
appears because of some bad treatments that he gets since he is a child. His
14
Maranatha Christian University
childhood also gives effect for him to become spiteful. In my opinion, he wants to
take revenge on other people because he gets so many bad treatments that he
becomes spiteful by making other people feel upset.
Living in the underground for a long time makes the Underground man
like to spend his time reading and day dreaming, which causes him to become
highly-imaginative. With his imagination he can create his life and decrease his
boredom. Living in the underground alone without anyone also forces him to
become independent. He can survive and endure his life although he does not
have a good career.
It is obvious that the Underground man is portrayed as a man who cannot
socialize with other people and prefers to live alone in the underground. By
creating the protagonist as a man with such characteristics the author is actually
dealing with choices and consequences. The Underground man has made a choice
to live alone and he accepts the consequences.
From this novel I learn that a man like the Underground man is a unique
character. How he lives his life and how he interacts with other people make him
unique. Almost all his characteristics are not usual and the way he lives his life is
strange enough because I do not think that as a social being one can live alone
without anyone’s helps. However, with all his characteristics that he has he can
still survive living alone. He can get a job to endure his life, and he does not
depend on other people.
I find that Dostoevsky has portrayed the Underground man realistically; he
has bad and good characteristics. His characteristics that I have mentioned above
are almost negative but there is one positive side from him, being independent.
15
Maranatha Christian University
His being independent is a good side that I get from the protagonist. Moreover, I
am of the opinion that the Underground man would never become strange if he
got some love and care from the people around him. What he needs is more
attention and no humiliation. Bad experience that he passes is a background how
he becomes strange and which makes him have some negative characteristics.
Last but not least, from what the protagonist experiences, I learn that
family is very important not only to give some helps when needed but also to
build one’s characteristics. Love and affection from one’s family will give good
impact on the person. He or she will surely grow up possessing positive
characteristics.
16
Maranatha Christian University
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary Text:
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from Underground. London: Penguin Red Classic, 2000.
References:
Perrine, Laurence. Story and Structure. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.
1974.
Hornby, A. S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Sixth Edition. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2000.
Internet Website:
“Notes from Underground Analysis”. Novel Guide. 1999-2009. 4 May 2008
17
Maranatha Christian University